We humans seem designed to seek meaning and make meaning of our lives.  It's not much of an exaggeration to say that we humans are meaning-making machines.  By our values and philosophies, our choices and actions, we wrest meaning from meaninglessness.  We make our lives count.And sometimes, it seems easier with 20/20 hindsight. "The meaning… Continue reading The Meaning of Life (Vayigash)

Especially in recent times, society has seemed to perfect the art of breaking things.  Much that we've come to know and rely on has been beaten up and even busted.  While it's nature's way that most everything eventually falls apart, spiritually speaking it's also nature's way for us to lean in, repair and build.  We've… Continue reading Power Tools for Building (Mikeitz)

Spirituality offers lots of claims, fewer promises, and one guarantee.  Whatever one's beliefs (or none at all), spirituality promises seekers a life of enhanced meaning, fueled by values lived in community, in dialogue with ancient tradition stretching forward into the future.  The only guarantee is that it won't always be easy.Just ask Jacob and Joseph… Continue reading Mind Your Matters (Vayeishev)

Most every spiritual system has a festival time of year dedicated to shining light in the darkness.  As the Northern day reaches its lowest ebb, Jews around the world prepare to celebrate Hanukkah – the Festival of Lights.  Hanukkah's nightly ritual of kindling candles has become one of Judaism's most cherished rituals.Especially this year, it's about much… Continue reading December 2023 Rabbi’s Corner: Darkness and Light

Every so often, we do well to return to our first principles of who we are – both individually and as a people.  We do well to revisit our core origin story – the story we tell ourselves about who we are called to be.  Whether amidst challenge or triumph, we do well to see with clear… Continue reading Becoming “Israel,” Again and Again

The fortuity that Thanksgiving often aligns with the Torah dream story of Jacob's Ladder isn't just a calendrical quirk.  The Pilgrims of America's colonial experience understood themselves to be following, quite literally, in Jacob's footsteps as travelers on a God-blessed journey toward new spirituality and new opportunity in a new world.From their common narrative, there's… Continue reading Thanksgiving and the First Stone of Blessing (Vayetzei)

If you or someone you love ever suffered, you probably asked why. “Why?” and particularly "why me?" echo in history and the psyche, whether spoken aloud or asked silently within.  The human heart wants to know why, even when the mind knows that there’s no knowing why.These deeply human questions reveal much about us, and… Continue reading When “Because” Doesn’t Answer “Why” (P. Toldot)

Spiritual life means different things to different people.  From Torah's early chapters forward, the core of Jewish spirituality has centrally featured personal engagement with the One we call God.  Long before fixed liturgies and other books, there was individual dialogue spoken from the heart.This week's Torah portion harkens back to those ancient times when one-on-One… Continue reading Are You Talking to Me? (P. Hayyei Sarah)

November pivots into the heart of autumn and all of its many symbols and feelings of transitions.  It's a time of "catching up to ourselves" at Shir Ami, navigating so much that's unfolding in the world around us, and seeking ways to truly count our blessings in gratitude for what is and what yet may… Continue reading Rabbi’s Corner: November 2023

t's another Torah portion ripped from the headlines, with plot twists, dubious behaviors and vexing moral quandaries all evoking recent Mideast events.  We are called to confront not only how we navigate hard times, but also how we understand and judge behaviors arising amidst hard times.  Torah seemed to know what psychologists learned thousands of years… Continue reading On Spirituality and Judgment Amidst Trauma (P. Vayera)

It's another "ripped from the headlines" Torah portion.  This one introduces Avram (later, Avraham) as spiritual history's first monotheist, and a God who promises both the giving of blessing and becoming a blessing.  But Avram quickly learns that blessing doesn't mean ease or instant gratification.  With eerie relevance to current events, Torah teaches of blessing… Continue reading Lekhi Lakh – Wresting a Blessing, Becoming a Blessing

In these turbulent days of Mideast news – the shock, the spiral of despair and death, the worry that worse may yet be to come – it all can feel overwhelming, as if the torrent is all but sure to destroy the innocent along with the rest.Facing his own torrent of overwhelm and destruction, Noah… Continue reading Make a Little Birdhouse In Your Soul (P. Noah)

orah begins again, and "in the beginning" – or maybe Torah's words mean something else? – we encounter more a cascade of questions than clearly reliable answers.That means we're doing it right. Now that the High Holy Day season and Simhat Torah's reboot are history, let’s start again at the very beginning (“a very good place… Continue reading Creation and Our Sacred Orchard (P. Bereshit)

Special Message from Rabbi David: Attacks on Israel – Community Gathering 6:00pm Sunday Dear Members and Friends: This special message, responding to fast-breaking world events, is my first as rabbi of Congregation Shir Ami.  I wish it were on most any subject other than the one we and our world face today and in the… Continue reading Special Message from Rabbi David: Attacks on Israel – Community Gathering 6:00pm Sunday

What do Torah, a crown, inheritance and collective unity have to do with one another? The answer of this week's Torah portion – Torah's very last one, and also prelude to Torah's very first one – derives from Moses' very last words to the Children of Israel before he died.  These words equally herald the end… Continue reading When We Become Who We’re Becoming

This week's full moon of Elul launches our two-week countdown to Rosh Hashanah.  When the waning moon runs out of reflected light, the outgoing year will run out of time. On that Erev Rosh Hashanah evening, Jews worldwide will gather together to usher in the new year.  Much as our spiritual ancestors did for centuries before us,… Continue reading The Superpower of Renewing Together

The Jewish month of Elul has begun.  Days are shortening noticeably.  Emails about the High Holy Days are flying.  Ritually, daily shofar blasts pierce protective layers and call us to renewed attention.  ​The season of teshuvah is here.​What is teshuvah?  English-language equivalents include "return" to "repent."  This impulse asks us to "return" to our highest selves and best spiritual lives.  We do so physically in community (it's "back to… Continue reading Lost and Found, Soul Edition

By Rabbi David Evan MarkusShoftim 5783 (2023) Concerns about justice and rightness are top headlines nowadays – and should be.  We are called to channel justice and rightness everywhere they seem in short supply. ​And if we think deeply, we might discover that justice and rightness ask of us far more – and, in a sense, also somewhat less… Continue reading Chasing Justice, Outside and In

If art and beauty are in the eye of the beholder, then what about spirituality and community?  And when we feel disconnected from spirituality and community – as everyone sometimes does – then what? This week’s Torah portion (Re'eh) invites us to see that one of the most powerful tools of spirituality concerns "how we see" what we… Continue reading The Eye Is In the Hand of the Beholder: Re’eh 5783

Imagine that you and a small group of beloveds are about to be exiled to a faraway island.  Jewishly speaking, what would you take with you?Speaking personally, my answer isn't a thing at all, but a principle from this week's Torah portion – which comes exactly on time. Stones left over from the Roman destruction of the… Continue reading Jewish Greatest Hits